Chapter Cyber Detective Chapter Objectives 13 After reading this chapter and completing the exercises, you will be able to do the following: Find contact information on the Web Locate court records on the Web Locate criminal records on the Web Use Usenet newsgroups to gather information Introduction In the preceding chapters we have examined many facets of computer security. Three of those issues lead us to the content of this chapter. The first is identity theft, the second is hacking, and the third is investigating potential employees for sensitive positions. In order for a criminal to perpetrate identity theft they have to take a small amount of information they find on their target and use that to garner even more information. Perhaps a discarded credit card receipt or utility bill becomes the starting point from which the perpetrator finds enough information to assume the victim's identity. This chapter will show you some techniques that use the Internet to find additional information about a person. You need to be aware of how this is done, in order to be better prepared to defend against it and so that you are aware of what information about you personally is available. Hackers, at least skilled hackers, will want information about a target person, organization, and system in order to assist in compromising security. Whether the perpetrator is attempting to use social engi- neering or simply trying to guess a password, having information about the target will facilitate the task. Once you realize how easy it is to gain personal information about someone, you will realize why 276